Lancewood, a South African cheese and dairy producer, prides itself on its reputation for superior quality and flavour.

Lancewood recently selected Afrisoft Africa to implement TransLution™ Software, aiming to improve a number of processes across its manufacturing plant in George, including the Dry Store process and the Hard Cheese manufacturing process.

The Dry Store process, the procedure of receiving dry goods, was streamlined by implementing TransLution™ to receive purchase orders, update SYSPRO to create supplier GRNs, and track received items as they are put away. The implementation also includes printing pallet labels for received items, managing samples for Quality Control, scanning to put away items into the dry goods store, and managing the process of picking items for WIP.

One of the primary benefits Lancewood has seen through automating the receiving process has been the time saved – this has allowed them to deploy much-needed resources elsewhere in the plant. The system has also significantly improved their overview of stock and the stock take process in the dry goods store, and traceability has been improved since all pallets are uniquely identified and labelled. The decision was made to trace the lots outside of SYSPRO which is a process fully supported by TransLution™.

The second part of the TransLution™ implementation aimed to improve the Hard Cheese manufacturing process which involves transferring pallets of hard cheese to an offsite warehouse to mature. Once the cheese has matured it is then moved back to the main factory for cutting. TransLution™ streamlined this transfer process and includes significant security and quality checks to ensure no pallets or crates on the pallets go missing. A full stocktake process was also implemented to support stocktake in the off-site store.

Where previously Lancewood utilised a spreadsheet system to track and plan pallets, this spreadsheet has now been replicated and is being dynamically updated with live data from the TransLution™ database. This has allowed users to continue using a tool they are familiar while improving the accuracy of the data and traceability of stock, as well as providing a better overall view of the processes.

Because of the detailed lot-traceable stock picture, stock take and picking processes have also improved and are much quicker than before.

TransLution™ is also being implemented in the Hard and Soft Cheese finished goods process and well as Lancewood’s dispatch process. These processes are being implemented as additional phases to the original project.

About

TransLution™ software was developed to assist manufacturing, warehousing and distribution companies to better manage their business processes and stock handling. The TransLution™ product is particularly focussed on robust integration to customers’ existing ERP, accounting and stock management software for a wide range of transactions. TransLution™ is distributed in Africa by Afrisoft Africa (Pty) Ltd and in Europe by K3 SYSPRO.

Afrisoft Africa (Pty) Ltd was founded in 1998 to serve the specialised needs of agribusiness, manufacturing, warehousing and distribution companies. Afrisoft provides consulting services for business improvement and distributes, implements and supports TransLution™, AGRIS™ and other business improvement software in Africa.